


Announcements and Arrivals

by Libstar



Category: Holby City
Genre: AU, F/F, Forever kind of love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 23:45:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11024088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Libstar/pseuds/Libstar
Summary: A little one shot from my Forever Kind of Love universe about how each of the children come into the world.





	Announcements and Arrivals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BlueBeetle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueBeetle/gifts).



> This is just a little one shot that wouldn't leave me alone this morning and I figured since I'm struggling to get the next part of Coming Home to go the way I want I might as well write it! I don't have a beta and I very rarely edit so all mistakes (and there are probably many) are mine. I woke up at 5:30 this morning, wrote half r this, napped, then finished it so I hope that it at least makes sense!  
> Gifting this to BlueBeetle for being a top human being!

 

Kids are something they talk about from very early on, while they are still at university, have barely been together for a year, before they have even introduced the other to their parents. They lie in bed at night and talk about the future, once Bernie has made it through basic training and Serena graduates from business school, where they might like to end up, what they want their family to look like. For a long time Bernie is resistant, Serena wants kids, has always wanted kids and doesn't care that her soul mate, because she’s sure that Bernie is very much the one, is a woman. Bernie though, who has been sure of her sexuality for as long as she can remember has also had to battle with her father’s blatant homophobia and her mothers inability to stand up to him. She's not sure what, if anything, she has to offer to Serena some days, never mind a child, knows that her career would mean missing a lot, the possibility of leaving a child without a parent and she doesn't want that, but Serena's enthusiasm is infectious and soon children with Serena's wild brown hair and big brown eyes start to run through her jeans.

  
It's a conversation they continue to have from opposite ends of the world, Serena's desire to have children, to start a family is strong, especially once they are married, she tells Bernie that she aches to give her a child and Bernie looks at all of her past mistakes, the people she hasn't been able to save, the country she has her own part tearing apart with tanks and guns, and thinks maybe this could be one of her greatest triumphs, thinks there is no better way to spend her inheritance from her maternal grandmother who was able to attend their wedding shortly before her death and loved Serena like she was her own. When she agrees finally, over a hazy Skype connection, the smile on Serena's face makes her heart burst, makes her wish that she was there to hug her, to kiss her and kiss her and kiss her.   
The next time Bernie is home they see the doctor together, talk through their options, have some tests to make sure everything is in working order. They find a clinic, choose a donor, and they have their first insemination two days before Bernie is due to fly out on her next tour. They both feel positive, Bernie thinks they have to be otherwise they’ll drive each other insane, and when they part ways at the airport Bernie kisses her wife, tells her she loves her and discreetly brushes her hand over her stomach, thinks to herself that if there is a baby in there, she loves them too, that she’ll be home for them both in no time.

  
It takes two weeks for them to set up enough that they have a trusted internet connection and phone line, another three days before Bernie has the time to get in touch with her wife. She checks her emails, finds the usual little updates, Serena tends to email persistently in the first few days, Bernie thinks it's her way of coping with Bernie leaving, but none of the emails mention anything about babies, or periods, so she remains positive, emails Serena back, updates her on where she is and gives her a time she’ll be free to talk on the phone. She goes to bed that night and dreams of her wife, pregnant and glowing, a little boy running riot around her and it keeps her going over the next several days when contact is limited and casualties are high.

  
They both know that they are lucky when it works first time and Bernie hates that she isn’t there to see Serena glowing with pregnancy with her own eyes and she knows Serena is struggling too, dealing with the pregnancy alone, her father being ill and trying to find them a family home. Not for the first time Bernie wonders if marrying Serena was selfish of her, if she wouldn’t have been better off finding someone who was willing to stay in one place, who didn't feel the need to answer a call from the army that she feels is in her blood. Serena calls her ridiculous, tells her that she's known from the minute she laid eyes on her, since they first kissed that they we're meant to be, that she knows that Bernie will do everything she can to always come back to her and now their child, tells her she loves her, that she’ll see her soon.

  
Their son has been out in the world for a two months when Bernie makes it home, unable to get anyone to agree to her early leave, not understanding how she could possibly become a mother when she is not herself pregnant, it frustrates and devastates her but she has almost a year off after this tour and plans to more than make up for it.   
Serena meets her at the airport, their son, Cameron, cradled in her arms, she’s chopped her hair short, she looks tired but to Bernie, it's perfect. Serena passes the tiny bundle to her the minute her bag hits the floor and Bernie is surprised to feel her face wet with tears. Cameron is perfect and she loves him immediately, quietly vows to protect him always when she presses a kiss to his head, can't think of anything that has felt so amazing in all of her life.

  
Charlotte is a surprise, to Bernie at least, she comes home from tour to find Serena glowing, a discrete bump visible only when Bernie lifts up her shirt when they go to be that night. They had talked about having a second child, had wanted to try again soon ish so that there wasn’t too much of a gap between Cam and his brother or sister but they hadn’t decided when, although Serena clearly had. It's not until a few days later that Serena admits quietly, in the middle of the night, that she had miscarried twice in the previous months, that it was part of the reason she hadn’t wanted to tell Bernie over the phone. Bernie pulls her tight into her side, kisses her forehead, strokes her hand over her belly, tells her she loves her. Again she feels guilty for being selfish enough to marry Serena, guilty that Serena should have to go through all of it alone while also bringing up their son. It’s then that she decides that when this commission is over she won't take up another, she will return to civilian life with her wife and their children and she will start to give them all the life they deserve, she will stop being selfish.

  
Charlotte arrives early and again Bernie misses it. She’d managed to talk to a more understanding commanding officer this time round and though she had only managed to get a month off, she’d at least managed to plan it so she would be there for Charlotte's birth, or so she thought. The call comes through late one night, three days before she’s due to leave base and set off on her two day journey home, it’s Adrienne, Serena has been taken into hospital, she’s ok but the baby is coming sooner rather than later. She cries that night, the first time she’s cried on tour in years, because yet again she has let her wife down, she has let her child down before they have even met.

  
It’s Adrienne who picks her up from the airport this time, Serena has only been home from the hospital for twenty four hours, is exhausted, Bernie understands but can’t help the disappointment either. When they reach the house Bernie drops her pack inside the front door and her arms are immediately filled with Cam who grins when she kisses him, tells her mummy is upstairs with the baby. She doesn’t even know if it's a boy or girl, Serena withholding the information with a sly chuckle, revenge for missing another birth Bernie supposes.

  
Serena is in bed, she looks exhausted but content and her grin stretches across her face when Bernie appears in the doorway, Cameron on her hip. Bernie kisses Serena first, presses their foreheads together, tells her she loves her, that she’s sorry, Serena tells her to stop being ridiculous, to go meet their daughter. A girl! Bernie can’t contain her stupid grin, nor the tears that fall when she scoops the little bundle into her arms and kisses her head, breathes her in, she’s perfect and Bernie's love grows exponentially to encircle her as well. They decide on Charlotte, in honour of Bernie's grandmother and it's harder again to leave this time and she has to keep reminding herself that she’s one more step closer to being home for good.  
They talk about the possibility of Ellie for a long time, Bernie is resistant, not because she doesn't want another child but because she doesn't want Serena to go through it all again, to risk miss carrying again with Bernie away from home still, but Serena is insistent, she always wanted three and again she doesn't want there to be too much gap between Charlotte and their third. Plus, she point out, Bernie is only a year away from her last tour, from being home for good. Bernie is there when Ellie is conceived, kisses Serena's stomach the night before she leaves, tells the tiny life that she loves it already, that she can't wait to meet it.

  
Again she plans meticulously, gives herself an extra weeks grace before the due date to make sure she is actually there. She’s met at the airport by Serena, heavily pregnant and grinning but Ellie is stubborn. She’s been home three weeks when Serena is induced and they finally get to meet their little girl who comes into the world screaming, angry at being taken from her comfortable home. Eleanor is a name that Serena picks out just because she likes it and Bernie quickly shortens to Ellie, ignoring Serena's loving scowl. She only has a week when Serena leaves the hospital to spend with them altogether before she has to he'd back out but this is her final tour, she can see the end and when she leaves this time, all four of them their to wave her off at the airport she kisses them all, tells them she loves them and leaves knowing that the next time they meet her hear, her kids will be six months older but she’ll never be leaving them again. 


End file.
